What I love about my business is the sheer variety. Here’s a snapshot of the last few days.

SEE PROJECT

I was invited to run a workshop for the SEE Project for delegates from Ireland, Czechoslovakia, Holland and Turkey. I spoke about how I deliver Careers Advice and got them to do a short design, build and present STEM activity.

Lovely people and I was most impressed with the delegate from Turkey who bravely stood up in front of everyone to do his presentation in English. He did a great job. Much better than I could have done in Turkish.

ANTI-BULLYING DAY

Chase Terrace Technology College invited me to run a Bullying Awareness Day for Year 7 pupils. We discussed bullying issues in school and online then got them to write and deliver a presentation on bullying-prevention techniques.

As well as one-to-one interviews, I have also brought speakers into schools to give advice as industry professionals. Pictured is Hope Nightingale from Birmingham City University talking about careers in Arts, Media and Fashion to year 11 pupils at Aldridge School.

I am blessed to have found something I enjoy that also has the benefit of developing our young people.

I ran my second Employer’s Forum at the Saddler’s Club in Walsall on Wednesday. Companies and organisations from across the Black Country came together to discuss the delivery of Skills Development activities in schools across the region.

John Price, former manager of Walsall Education Business Partnership, gave a keynote speech explaining the history of skills development programmes and we need them today more than ever.

They received a schedule of planned activities this school year and gave a commitment to offer their support.

Anyone wishing to join this growing group of inspiring business supporters please get in touch.

What a great day with Aldridge School Year 10 pupils today. They did a range of skills development activities which included writing a CV, a Letter of Application and inventing and presenting a new business.

There was a lot of facing fears as well as creativity and presenting skills on show.

Business supporters attending the event as facilitators and judges were: Jacqui Pountney MBE, Richard Scott and Sue Bedward of Space2focus. They interacted with the pupils, helped develop their ideas and had the tough job of choosing the eventual winners.

Rachael and Jo from InComm Training came in to give talk on Apprenticeships and how to apply as well as discussing employability skills.

I’ll be using the experience of working with Year 10 when I start their Careers interviews in a couple of weeks’ time.

A fantastic day at Abu Bakr Girl’s School in Walsall. We ran a Maths Challenge aimed at letting the pupils understand the importance of Maths in terms of school grades and future careers. One challenge involved them making a range of Maths shapes in 3d and then jazzing them up with a themes to present to the judging panel.

With only one hour to complete the activity from scratch, the girls used their teamwork and creativity skills to produce a range of brilliant ideas as shown below.

The Business Supporters and I enjoyed every minute of working with a group of talented and intelligent young people.

I had an excellent day with Cheslyn Hay High School Year 9s. The school is very big on giving pupils the opportunity to develop their business and social skills.

The pupils did an Intelligence Quiz and a mini-challenge to create an art installation to demonstrate the future of Cheslyn Hay. We then gave them a budget of £100k to develop any part of town into a Social Enterprise Business.

All pupils came up with great ideas and then presented them to a judging panel made up of local business representatives: Peter Cadman, Julie Lee and Tracey Wellings.There was a lot of ‘facing your fears’ as the pupils stood out front with a microphone in their hands and we ended up with fourteen superb presentations.

It was great to run a business challenge at Castle School with their primary pupils.

They had to invent and present a range of brand new businesses in only two hours. All of them came up with great ideas and faced their fears by standing in front of everyone to make their presentations.

They may not be academically-gifted but they can certainly hold their own in terms of ideas and communication.

It was great to have the opportunity to deliver a Modern Foreign Languages day to Year 9 pupils at Shire Oak Academy.

With my Business Supporters, Helen Gelsthorpe-Smith (Henn and Westwood), PSCO Bernie Craze (West Midlands Police), Glenys Price (Gap Language Services), Jacqui Pountney MBE (Walsall Equestrian Society) and Sam Samuels (HSBC Bank) I delivered a three hour session that gave information on the value of learning a language to future careers and asked the pupils to create and make presentations using as many languages as they could.

The pupils worked hard and producing amazing ideas. It was a great day and I hope many of the pupils choose a language as a GSCE option.

The 2013 Scrapheap Challenge took place on Friday at Aldridge School in Walsall. Nine teams took part in a challenge to design a work of art of a new product from end-of-life computer components.

They had to present their ideas on stage to a panel of business experts.

Bristnall Hall Academy were worthy winners and will host the challenge in 2014

One again, EBS Ltd recruited a number of businesses to support the event. These included AF Blakemore and Son Ltd, South Staffs Water, The Highways Agency, Bryant Construction, West Midlands Police and RePc Ltd. Thnak you all for making the event a success and sharing your knowledge and experience with the young people.